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Billionaire entrepreneur and head of the DOGE, Elon Musk and US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, got into a dispute over staff cuts during a cabinet meeting presided by President Donald Trump on Thursday, reported The New York Times.
The issue came to a head when Donald Trump told his cabinet heads that they were responsible for taking the final call on staffing and policy in their respective agencies, and not Elon Musk, who operates as a White House advisor and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, reported Reuters.
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However, earlier Trump made a contradictory statement saying that “Elon will do the cutting” if agency leaders didn’t reduce their spending.
During the cabinet meeting, Elon Musk reportedly accused Marco Rubio of not firing anyone in 45 days and hindering Musk’s plans to reduce federal staff on a massive scale.
Also Read: Why did Trump name Zelensky, Melania, and Musk in his first speech to Congress?
Rubio hit back stating that 1,500 state department employees had taken early retirement buyouts. Further, as reported by The New York Times, he made a sarcastic remark about whether Elon Musk wished for people to be hired again just so he could make a show out of firing them.
The meeting was the result of several complaints regarding the Musk-led DOGE and its staff-cutting initiatives. Musk and senior officials in the Trump administration have been at loggerheads, with officials accusing his young team of Silicon Valley recruits to be exceeding their authority, reported AFP.
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After the meeting was adjourned, Trump announced that staff cuts would continue but with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet”, implying that he would be taking into account concerns about Musk’s approach.
However, when asked by reporters about the reported clash between Rubio and Musk, Donald Trump denied any tension between the two officials.
“No clash, I was there, you’re just a troublemaker. Elon gets along great with Marco and they’re both doing a fantastic job. Marco has done unbelievably as Secretary of State. And Elon is a unique guy and has done a fantastic job,” he said.
